Saturday May 20 - the date of Wasps’ semi-final with Leicester Tigers - is also engraved on black-and-gold hearts.

This is because it marks the tenth anniversary of the Coventry side’s last Heineken Cup victory, which coincidentally also came against their now Midlands rivals.

And Wasps fans will also be hoping for a repeat performance from their team, who won the competition’s first all-English final 25-9 at Twickenham in front of a Heineken Cup record crowd of 81,076.

Jacob Leeks looks back on a famous day...

The immovable object meets the unstoppable force:

Defending champions Tigers arrived at HQ seeking a treble after clinching the Premiership final eight days earlier with a 44-16 win over Gloucester and the Anglo-Welsh Cup already safely locked away in the Welford Road trophy cabinet.

Wasps were seeking their first trophy since winning the previous season’s Anglo-Welsh Cup, while their league drought stretched back three years to the final leg of the early 2000’s title treble.

The clubs also had well-developed enmity courtesy of a rivalry which had gained intensity over the first decade of the new century, since Wasps became established as the main title challengers to English rugby’s long-standing East Midlands powerhouse.

Main men:

Both sides also named three 2003 World Cup winners - captain Lawrence Dallaglio, centre Josh Lewsey and prop Phil Vickery made up Wasps’ contingent, while forwards Martin Corry, Ben Kay and Lewis Moody were Tigers’ representatives.

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What happened next:

Alex King and Andy Goode traded early penalties but it was Wasps who claimed the game’s opening try when Irish international scrum half Eoin Reddan took an Ibanez pass at the front of the line-out and touched down in the corner.

Although Tigers got on the board through three Andy Goode penalties, Wasps went into the break with a 13-9 advantage thanks to a second try, created and finished by French international hooker Ibanez.

An Alex King penalty and drop-goal further extended their advantage after the break, and the fly-half sealed victory with his third successful three-pointer seven minutes from time after replacement James Haskell’s 60 metre burst down the right wing forced Tigers to infringe.

Wasps buzz:

“Leicester are a great team and we feel very proud to have beaten them on the greatest stage of all. Everyone was telling us that was the best Leicester team ever, so we must be the best Wasps team ever.”

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Connections:

Leicester back Sam Vesty is an unlikely Wasps fans favourite after his showboating for Bath allowed Tom Varndell to make the try-saving tackle that retrieved a losing bonus point which secured their club’s top-flight status in 2012.

Coventry-born fly-half Andy Goode , who kicked three penalties for Tigers in the final, went on to enjoy a spell at Wasps from 2013 to 2015, during which he made 58 appearances and scored 468 points, including a record-breaking effort against London Irish on his club’s first league appearance at the Ricoh Arena in late 2014.

Lawrence Dallaglio presenting for BT Sport at the Ricoh before Wasps' European Rugby Champions Cup Quarter Final with Exeter in April 2016. (Image: Richard Lane)

This was not however the black-and golds’ first appearance at the ground - this came one month before the 2007 final when Wasps beat Northampton in a Heineken Cup semi-final.